Cafe Yaya X Young Wine Society
Meet us at Cafe Yaya for a night of Eastern Mediterranean Wine!
This month, YWS is hanging out in Lincoln Park at one of our favorite neighborhood spots and exploring one of the most exciting and unique wine lists in the city. Cafe Yaya and sister restaurant, Galit, have some of the coolest, most thoughtful, and niche wine programs we've seen, and we're going to dive into it YWS-style with a fun, unpretentious tasting.
Together, we’ll taste through indigenous Middle Eastern varietals crafted by a new generation of winemakers carrying on centuries-old traditions in fresh and innovative ways.
Included:
5 tasting pours of carefully selected Eastern Mediterranean wines from innovative young producers
Grazing table with dips, crudités, pita, crackers
New friends and a new favorite wine bar ;)
Vintage Members will also receive exclusive VIP pours hand-selected by sommelier Scott Stroemer, recipient of a 2024 Michelin Chicago Sommelier Award
All bottles will be available to purchase after the event
Here are the Wines we will be tasting!
Tsiakkas, XYNISTERI Lemesos, Cyprus. This is the primary white grape of Cyprus. Orestes Tsiakkas leads a young generation of winemakers discovering the potential of native Cypriot varietals to make modern, dry, mineral-driven wines of incredible character, breaking with the island's tradition of making sherry-like wines.
Mersel Wine, ‘Phoenix’ MERWAH Wadi Qannoubine, Lebanon. Eddie Chami is the face of a natural wine movement in northern Lebanon. Farming at high elevation—over 1600 meters above sea level—he balances modern winemaking, informed by his UC Davis training, with ancient tradition, using wines from these 150-year-old vines (planted by his great-grandfather) that are fermented and aged in handmade amphorae.
Cremisan Wine Estate, BALADI Bethlehem, Palestine. Baladi, which translates to "local" or "native" in Arabic, was identified by winemaker Fadi Baterseh while researching for his graduate thesis. Cremisan has been central to the revival of native Palestinian grapes.
Recanati, MARAWI Judean Hills, Israel. Following Ariel University's research into the indigenous grapes of the land of Israel, Recanati became the first large-scale winery to bring previously unknown varietals to market with this wine's first vintage.
Pasaeli, ‘Old Vines’ KARASAKIZ Aegean, Turkey. The great defender of Turkey's ancient varietals. Paşaeli is a winery unlike any other, working with grapes most assumed extinct to bring wines of incredible history to a modern world.
See you there 🍇 Please arrive on time :)
Ticket Policy & Community Etiquette: We plan our wine and food based on exact headcount. As such, we cannot offer refunds for cancellations. However, tickets are fully transferable- if you can't make it, gift your spot to a friend!
Note for Members: We love that you get early access, but please only reserve tickets you intend to use. Repeated "no-shows" prevents other members from joining the fun and hurts our small business partners. In addition, you are only allowed ONE discounted ticket per Vintage Member. Please do not abuse this policy.